


This Old Town

by Snailiosis



Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast), Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: And possibly some entire subplots, Canon-Typical The Web Content (The Magnus Archives), House at 105 Hill Top Road (The Magnus Archives), I haven’t completely decided if this is gonna be a comedy or a horror tragedy yet, It might end up as both, Like mind control and stuff, Not Beta Read, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, There will be more characters I'm gonna add them as they appear, Trying not to reorganize the night vale plot too much, but I’ll figure it out, but i will be skipping some episodes, contains spoilers, idk yet I’ll try my best not to
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-01
Updated: 2021-03-08
Packaged: 2021-03-13 02:28:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,672
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29769303
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Snailiosis/pseuds/Snailiosis
Summary: “Perhaps there are many such places across the Earth. Perhaps it is unique. Certainly, no-one has known either way.” (MAG 196)In which Night Vale is another break in the universe. It’s a somewhat more dramatic one than Hilltop Road.
Comments: 18
Kudos: 18





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This chapter includes spoilers for MAG 196!

105 Hilltop Road was a break in reality. Just a crack, really, but the Web had plans to widen it. Or, that wasn’t entirely accurate. The Web itself wasn’t sentient in the same way as people, and most of the plans were actually held by its avatars. Then again, perhaps the line between the Web and its avatars wasn’t all that clear cut. In any case, the universe was fractured, and there were plans to create a passage through the break. 

Annabelle Cane was currently the main actor, so to speak, for the Web, which meant she was the one setting things in motion. Which meant she had to pay attention to the threads that connected everything and everyone. Which meant she was the one who noticed. Which meant she was the one who had to figure out what to do about it. 

Somewhere in America, there was a man being terrorized by threads which occasionally pulled him through motions he couldn’t remember. This wasn’t an unusual occurrence, the Web took many victims, and they were rarely important to everything else. But that was the issue — this man wasn’t affecting the rest of the world at  _ all _ . Oh, he had plenty of threads surrounding him, but they just  _ stopped _ after a certain point. It was like dropping a rock into a pond and watching the ripples abruptly cut off at an invisible line. 

When she looked closer, she could see that it wasn’t just him either. With few exceptions, his entire town seemed to only interact with itself. Lots of small towns didn’t impact much of the outside world, but there was always  _ something _ — calls to friends or family, stores restocking, votes cast, taxes paid, packages received and sent. This town had none of that. There were a few threads leading in, where people had moved into the town, but these were few and far between. And once they’d arrived, their only impact to the rest of the world was, apparently, in having gone missing. 

Add to this that everyone there had a handful of Marks, and this town was probably much more important than its complete lack of influence would seem to suggest. Annabelle couldn’t actually See the town, and, truth be told, she was somewhat hesitant to visit a place that was so clearly a stronghold for the Beholding, but that was okay. Jonah would be more than willing to send his Archivist somewhere he’d be so likely to be Marked, after all.

<O><O><O>

”I’m not going to  _ America _ , Elias. I have  _ far _ too much work organizing this  _ disaster _ of an Archive before I can take on anything else.”

“You can always bring some of the statements with you. Now, if you don’t have any other concerns…?”

<O><O><O>

Jonah had never Seen this town before, but after Ms Cane left he Looked for it. It took longer than he would’ve liked, but he found it. Even then, he couldn’t Look directly at it. It was even harder to See than it was to See that house on Hilltop Road, although it was clearly another place where reality didn’t quite line up. But there was more to it than that. It was such a tangle of Dark and Spiral and Stranger that the Eye could barely get a foothold, and the very center of the town was a blind spot not unlike the tunnels. 

Of course, the tunnels were the way they were because of their connection to the Panopticon. Ms Cane had implied that the town was a place of power for the Eye, so he supposed it was theoretically possible that it was a similar situation. But he couldn’t imagine how a place so filled with unKnowable things could ever belong to the Beholding. 

He supposed all he could really do now was hope his Archivist managed to survive.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They arrive in Night Vale. Sasha wants to know some things.

It took a long time to get to Night Vale, even without counting the overnight plane trip. 

Actually, “a long time” might’ve been a bit of an understatement.

“I’m pretty sure we’re lost,” said Tim.

“We’re not,” Jon said, “the map just isn’t being very helpful,”

”I’m pretty sure six hours of aimlessly driving through the desert makes us lost,” said Sasha. 

Martin didn’t say anything, opting instead to look out the window. He also thought they were lost, for the record, but he certainly wasn’t going to  _ say _ that.

“I’m not ‘driving aimlessly’, I’m—”

“Lost?” Tim suggested.

“Let me look at the map,” Sasha said, pulling it towards herself. A few minutes were passed in silence as she stared at it. Finally, she looked up and pushed the map back to the front enough that Jon and Tim could mostly see it. Well, Tim could, anyways. Jon was keeping his eyes on the road. 

“Are we sure Elias didn’t just make this town up? Because we’re definitely right here,” she pointed at a section of road, “but this turn,” she pointed again, “just doesn’t exist?”

Tim’s head made a loud  _ thump _ as he dropped it against the window. “Of course. Weird haunted town that doesn’t exist,” he said.

“It’s not haunted. Small towns can be more…  _ relaxed _ … about the use of mind altering substances. I’m sure that’s all this is.”

Personally, Martin thought that it was a bit far-fetched to say that every citizen in a town was high all the time. Tim apparently felt the same way, because he raised his head and dropped it against the window again. 

<O><O><O>

They ended up abandoning the map since it clearly wasn’t giving them accurate directions. When they called Elias about it he just said he “was sure they’d find their way eventually”, which wasn’t helpful. 

They did, though. It took another three hours, but they did.

“Look, there!” Sasha’s voice startled Tim out of his thoughts. He had taken over driving some time ago, and he’d honestly been zoning out a bit. He knew it wasn’t particularly safe to do that, but, well, something about the dust and concrete rushing away in front of them was very good for zoning out. 

“It’s that road we couldn’t find,” Sasha grabbed the map, pointing at it. Tim turned onto the road. 

“That’s so weird,” he said, “we were  _ definitely  _ here before and that road wasn’t.”

“A lot of the desert looks the same, Tim. We were probably just somewhere that looked like here. It explains why Elias mixed up the directions, too.”

Tim very pointedly didn’t tell Jon that their directions were made up by things like “roads” and “coordinates”, not the “general appearance of the desert”.

“Yeah,” he said instead. 

Martin pointed out the windshield. “Tim, I think you’ve got to take that turn up there?”

Sasha shook her head, ”The map just says to keep going straight,”

“Yeah, but that sign says ‘Welcome to Night Vale’. Tim I  _ really _ think you should turn here? Haven’t we already established that the map isn’t helpful, anyways?”

The sign also said “If you lived here you’d be dead by now”, but if nobody else had pointed that little detail out, Tim wouldn’t either. He turned. 

“Sorry, Sash, I’m trusting the road signs over Elias’s shitty map making skills.” 

As they passed the sign, the radio turned on. 

_ “Despite this, I must enter the auction house now myself, taking my life into my hands even more than usual. Lot 37: Cecil Palmer. I must know. I must bid. I go now, listeners, to await the crying of Lot 37.  _

_ “As I go, you go, to the weather.” _

The sound suddenly devolved into static, and Jon switched it off. It switched back on. Jon frowned at it.

“Well, I mean, that definitely  _ seemed _ haunted,” said Martin over the static. 

“What’d he even  _ say _ ?” asked Tim, “Something about an auction?”

“I think he said one of the, the… things…? That you bid on? I think he said it was a name?”

“‘Lot 37: Cecil Palmer’” recited Sasha, “and he also said he had to ‘take his life into his own hands’, do you think that was  _ his _ name?”

“Like I said,” Jon answered, “small towns tend to be more relaxed about drug usage.”

“ _ Or _ maybe he’s going to be kidnapped? Should we maybe call the police or something?” Martin asked. 

“Guys. It’s probably just a comedy program or something. The bit where we can’t turn it off is spooky as hell, though.”

Jon looked up from frowning at the radio. 

“I hardly think an electronic glitch is ‘ _ spooky’ _ , Tim.”

Tim fiddled with the volume control for a minute, before electing to try to ignore it. 

He didn’t have to try for very long, thankfully, before the man’s voice came back. He said he lost the auction. He also mentioned some things that, to Tim’s mind at least, were very concerning, without seeming to notice. It confirmed his theory that it was a fictional program, though. The static hadn’t lasted nearly long enough for him to have actually gone to an auction.

<O><O><O>

They’d just barely entered the town when they passed a house surrounded by a halo. Sasha stared at it. Nobody else seemed to have seen it. She twisted her head around to watch it retreating. What the fuck? 

She filed the house away in her mind. They were supposed to be here for a couple weeks(ish, Elias had been vague and just told them to take as long as they needed), so she’d have plenty of time to figure out what was up with it. 

The other thing she was curious about was the weird radio program. The thing was, Tim’s explanation made a lot of sense. It really did. So she wasn’t sure why she didn’t believe it. Maybe it was just because this town was supposed to be weird, but Secret Police and being sold at an auction still seemed unlikely. So. Weird radio program and weird halo house. She’d have plenty of time to figure out what was up with them. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You guys MAG 197 basically made me rework the entire plot of this. Can I get an F in the chat


End file.
